Kitty Litter–Freshness With Every Step

Our front and back door entrances are like one long sheet of ice.  I didn’t want anyone coming to our home and taking the chance of falling………and…….at my age, I look at that ice and think hips…. broken hips.  I couldn’t think of any way to melt the ice so my next option was kitty litter for traction.  I went to the store and purchased the cheapest sack I could find.

When I got home, I sprinkled it all along the path leading up to our back door.

Today, however, I used the front door to go out to the mailbox and that path is literally ice…..a nice thick layer of ice.  You guessed it, out came the kitty litter.

It works really well for traction but every time I step out the door I’m reminded of this commercial.  Just click on the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-zm5sdQ99k&feature=youtu.be

Yep….freshens with every step.  Although the kitty litter I purchased isn’t the same brand as the one in the video, it definitely has a real flowery smell.  When I scatter it along the paths, the flowery scent is pretty strong.  Thank goodness the smell dissipates after time. 

Grayson’s (Not So) Happy Birthday

OhMyGoodness…………..what a weekend it was.  My husband and I headed across the dessert on Friday because he had a dental appointment in Rexburg and it was mine and my grandsons birthdays.  My grandson was born on the 24th, I was born on the 23rd, and his late grandmother was born on the 22nd.  After my husbands dental appointment, we headed to our daughters home where we were planning on going out to dinner, staying the night and then celebrating Grayson’s 1st birthday the following day. 
Grayson had the stomach flu on Wednesday but had not thrown up for two days.  He was acting fine but he would not eat or drink anything and he went approximately 12 hours without wetting a diaper.  On Saturday morning a little before 8am, Grayson drank a few ounces from his bottle but threw it up.  My daughter and her husband decided to take him to emergency care to see if he was dehydrated and to see what else might be going on.  The emergency care place tried to get an I.V. in him but was unable to do so, so they called the hospital to let them know that my daughter and her husband would be bringing him there.  They had a difficult time getting an I.V. in him at the hospital too, but eventually they got one in.  I had a very difficult time being in the room so I left and roamed the halls for awhile.  Wow……I’m thinking this was as hard on me as it was my daughter.  After getting the I.V. in, my son-in-law was sitting by Grayson and playing “White Noise” on his phone to calm him.

To protect the I.V. line, they put a temporary thing on his arm to hold it in place and to keep him from bending his arm.  His blood sugar was also low so per doctor request, my daughter gave him a bottle to see if we could get it up.  Yeah, he did take his bottle….

Each time they took a test for his blood sugar, they had to prick his little fingers……poor little guy, he was not happy with his hospital experiences.  He was so exhausted, that he was finally able to fall asleep for approximately an hour or so.


The doctor must have been reading his charts because when he came in the room, he said, “Ah, I didn’t know it was his birthday”, and he left.  He came back a few minutes later with a cowboy blanket, a yellow bear, and a little wooden car.  He said to give them to Grayson for his birthday and told us that some women made the blanket and some other man had made the car.  What a sweet gesture!

In the following picture, Grayson’s daddy was holding him while his little cousins from Texas sang Happy Birthday to him.  They were so cute.

After what seemed like hours…it actually was, they decided to keep Grayson overnight to monitor him because he had lots of diarrhea diapers and they wanted to get his blood sugar up.  They just kept him on the bed he had been using and wheeled him up to the infant/children's floor.  He liked the ride there and did not cry at all during his ride.


When he got to his room, it was a different story….he cried a lot, even with his binky in.

After they were through getting him all set up, my daughter gave him another bottle.

After he finished his bottle, he looked right over at grandma…that would be ME…and gave me the biggest smile.  Ahhh-h-h-h, melt my HEART……..!!!

A little after 3pm, my husband and I decided we’d better leave so we could get home before dark.  To reach our home area in the evening is taking chances of hitting deer on the road.  Been there, done that a few times.  Just the week before, just before dark, a deer came running on the highway, running along side our car for a ways before darting in front of us.  We don’t know how we missed hitting him, but we did………..Yeah!
It was hard, very hard, leaving our little grandson but he was in great hands and our daughter and her husband were spending the night in his room.
The doctor released him Sunday evening to go home.  He cried most of the day yesterday but today, January 28th, he has been the best little boy.  But, as luck would have it, my daughter now has the flu.  She said that Grayson has been so good today that she was able to lay on the couch while he played in the living room.  Tender Mercies, for sure.

Choo, Choo, Choose the Right - Train

I found a wonderful blog HERE that has free handouts for Primary and Seminary lessons. 
I was asked to substitute for a CTR class this past Sunday.  I was called Friday night and I didn’t have the manual so I got on line at LDS.org to print off the lesson.  With doing this, I did not have the pictures or handouts that are in the regular manual so I hit the internet.  That is where I came across “fashionsbylynda.com/blog” that contained the cutest train.  It was a free download and I just loved the train idea but it didn’t quite fit the theme of the lesson I was giving.  I used what she had and changed it up a bit (hope this was OK since it was a free download) to fit the lesson topic I was teaching.  I got the CTR (Choose The Right) graphic for the train smoke stack from Free LDS Printables, Handouts, and Clip Art. 
The little ones loved their CTR trains.  We made a game out of it by saying….Choo, Choo, Choose The Right, repeatedly, as we chugged our way around the classroom.  After we were chugged out, I gave them crayons and had them draw a picture on the bottom of their papers depicting something that made them happy when they obeyed the commandments to choose the right. 
Once again, I love it when talented people share their ideas that help in bringing joy to others.

Here is the train I got off of her blog….So Cute:

And here is the train I doctored up to fit the topic of my Sunday lesson:

Brown Sugar Burns

I didn’t see that one coming.  For years I have kept my brown sugar in the freezer….It keeps it from going hard (other than freezer hard).  When I need it for a recipe, I zap it in the microwave for a few seconds till it gets soft enough to scoop out enough for the recipe I am using. 
A few days ago I was making some brown sugar oatmeal pancakes (see bottom of blog for recipe) for breakfast and as usual, I zapped the brown sugar but it wasn’t quite soft enough so I zapped it again.  I wasn’t paying attention and  when I reached in the microwave and gave it a squeeze………OUCH!  My fingers plunged into the bag and browned sugar gushed out.  It felt live a flowing river of lava running over my fingers.  By the time I’d gotten over to the sink, the brown sugar had hardened on my finger and I had to peel it off.  Ooey, Wooey, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch.  After peeling off the hardened sugar, I quickly turned on some cold water and let it run over my fingers for quite awhile trying to get the heat out of my finger.




You can see in the picture below how much my pointer finger had swollen and blistered compared to the pointer finger on my left hand.  My other finger, next to my pointer finger only blistered a little.

These pictures were taken later in the afternoon.

Other than the immediate pain and shortly after, I haven’t had any pain.  I’m giving credit to the fact that after running my fingers under cold water, I put some miracle gel, peppermint & lavender essential oils on my fingers and have continued to do so for the past couple of days.  Two days later and my fingers are looking pretty good. 

I just wanted to post about this in case there are others out there that do what I do with their brown sugar.  I will continue to keep my brown sugar in the freezer but I’ll be a bit more wise in the thawing process.

These Brown Sugar Oatmeal Pancakes are so delicious.  They are a family special that everyone likes.